By 
Mediterraneo general manager Matt Husted and beer director Adam Aro. Photo
Matt Husted was an unapologetic wine snob when he arrived as general manager of Mediterraneo in Hermosa Beach nine years ago. And then he saw the light. He drank a really good beer.
He remembers the day. He was across the street at Café Boogaloo and had a drink with its former owner Steve Roberts, who put a big, hoppy beer in front of him. It was called Pliny the Elder, from the Russian River Brewing. Husted was suspicious.
“Hoppy beers? I don’t know,” Husted told Roberts.
Then he sipped the beer. “Wow,” he exclaimed. After he went back to his own establishment, he called Roberts back.
“How can I get that beer?” he asked.
“You can’t,” Roberts said.
“Why not?”
Husted laughs as he recollects the story, but his conversion was total. Later that year, in 2005, he expanded the beer handles at Mediterraneo from 10 mostly well-known beers – think Stella Artois – to 30 off-the-beaten path brews.
The move wasn’t an immediate hit. Pier Avenue wasn’t quite ready for the craft beer movement, which was in its infancy.
“Listen, we were really going against the grain, especially on Pier Avenue,” Husted said. “It’s ‘beach hot day easy-to-go-down beers’ here. We really wanted to carry something different from what everybody else did. It was an uphill battle, at first. ‘What do you mean you don’t have Budweiser?’ ‘Sorry, we don’t have Budweiser. I love Budweiser, nothing wrong with Budweiser, but everyone else at the Pier has Budweiser. We are trying to give you something else to try.’ I think two years ago, it started to not be an uphill battle but a benefit – people started seeking that out.”
Craft beer actually went hand-in-hand with the larger ethos of Mediterraneo, which was also ahead of the curve locally with its selection of wines and small plate, artisanal-based cuisine.
“I’m just really into the passion behind creating something, whether it’s food, wine, beer, spirits, or whatever the case may be,” Husted said. “It was nice because we tried real hard to become a respected established beer bar, and to be bluntly honest, we didn’t want that to be driven by the typical beer bar, which is burgers and fries. We don’t have burgers and fries. Beer is not all about burgers and fries – it’s about flavors and the complexities of it, and the same depth wine has, which is very much reflected in our food.”
Mediterraneo was among the first to carry local breweries such as Strand and Monkish and has consistently sought out beers at the outer edges of the brewing frontier. Husted, for example, repaid Roberts palate-expanding favor by introducing him to his first sour (Russian River Sour, as symmetry would have it) long before sours became the latest trend.
After four years at the beer helm, Husted turned to a member of his staff, Adam Aro, to take the brew menu to even higher level as he returned to his first love, wine. Aro has shown a particular gift for hunting down international rarities, such as a smoked stout from Iceland called Lava or a vintage 20089 Flemish red beer.
“There are no restrictions for what I want to put on, and luckily no restrictions on what Matt will allow me to purchase,” Aro said. “The crazier the better.”
Mediterraneo Kitchen & Bar, 73 Pier Avenue, HB, (310) 318-2666.
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